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R507.  P65  L63  1 903    Philippe  Pinel :  a  m 


RECAP 


Lincoln 

. . . .Philippe  Pinel 

R507.P65  -6.3  190.3 


mtfjeCttpoOtegork 

College  of  -Pfjpsictans  anb  burgeons! 

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http://www.archive.org/details/philippepinelmemOOIinc 


pbilippe  flMnel 


PHILIPPE     PINEL 


A    MEMORIAL   SKETCH 


DAVID  F.  LINCOLN,  M.D. 


BOSTON 
1903 


5) -%&-<!  $%S~b 


1*103 


Press  of 

Geo.  H.  Ellis  Co., 

Boston,  Mass. 


This  little  sketch  is  written  and  printed 
at  the  request  and  at  the  expense  of  Mr. 
James  Munson  Barnard  to  accompany  a 
reproduction  of  the  picture  in  the  Sal- 
petriere  Insane  Asylum,  of  Pinel  striking 
off  the  fetters  of  the  inmates. 

December,  1902. 


PHILIPPE    PINEL 

1745-1826 

The  life  of  Pinel  can  be  outlined  in  a  few 
words.  He  was  the  son  of  a  physician  in 
moderate  circumstances  at  Saint-Andre- 
d'Alayrac  in  the  department  of  Tarn.  He 
studied  medicine  at  the  neighboring  cities 
of  Toulouse  and  Montpellier,  and  finally 
at  Paris.  He  was  the  successor  to 
Cuvier's  seat  in  the  Institute,  professor 
of  medical  physics  and  of  internal  pathol- 
ogy at  the  Faculte  de  Medecine  of  Paris, 
author  of  a  series  of  works  on  insanity, 
and  physician  at  Bicetre  and  the  Salpe- 
triere. 

(S) 


All  this  should  be  told,  for  it  forms  the 
register  of  a  life  which  rose  by  its  own 
merit  from  poverty  to  eminence  and  honor. 
But  the  one  fact  which  the  world  cares 
for  remains  to  be  told  :  he  first  struck  off 
the  fetters  of  the  insane,  and  replaced 
barbarism  by  humanity  in  their  treatment. 

Pinel  had  the  good  fortune  to  live  at  a 
time  when  great  reforms  were  called  for. 
The  treatment  of  prisoners  and  of  the 
insane  can  hardly  have  been  more  dreadful 
at  any  time  in  the  world's  history  than  it 
was  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  In  strange  contrast  to  the  new 
philanthropic  and  philosophic  ideas  of  the 
day,  cruelty  prevailed  everywhere.  Hang- 
ing was  inflicted  for  petty  larceny  in  Eng- 
land. The  British  navy  was  a  hell  afloat. 
The  French  peasantry  were  crushed  under 
an  incredible  tyranny.  It  is  significant 
(6) 


that  Pinel's  work  was  contemporaneous 
with  that  of  John  Howard,  the  prisoners' 
friend,  and  that  of  William  Tuke,  founder 
of  the  York  Retreat  for  the  Insane. 
These  three  led  the  advance-guard  of 
modern  philanthropy  in  a  callous  age,  and 
they  deserve  to  be  joined  in  our  love  and 
reverence. 

William  Tuke  represents  the  Quaker 
spirit  at  its  best.  The  establishment  of 
the  Retreat  was  due  to  a  movement 
among  his  sect,  which  had  its  origin  in 
cruel  treatment  of  a  member  at  the  noto- 
rious asylum  at  York.  It  was  conducted 
by  Tuke  upon  principles  identical  with 
those  of  Pinel,  although  the  two  men  seem 
to  have  worked  in  entire  independence  of 
each  other.  He  and  his  successors  of  the 
same  name  have  made  his  family  illustri- 
ous for  four  generations  in  Britain. 

(7) 


The  treatment  of  the  insane  was  pretty 
much  alike  in  England  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent. They  were  locked  up  in  stone 
dungeons  without  other  furniture  than  a 
plank  and  a  pile  of  straw,  without  light  or 
fire,  and  left  to  wallow  in  filth,  or,  when 
cleansed,  it  was  done  with  broom  and  mop 
as  one  would  clean  a  pig.  Nearly  naked, 
they  were  overrun  with  vermin,  sometimes 
killed  by  the  bites  of  rats,  often  frost-bitten, 
often  suffering  gangrene  of  the  extremities 
in  consequence.  Scurvy  and  dysentery 
raged  among  the  half -starved  inmates. 
The  attendants  were  slatterns  and  ruffians, 
armed  with  sticks  and  attended  by  dogs, 
carrying  handcuffs,  and  empowered  to 
chain  up  all  whom  it  suited  their  conveni- 
ence to  treat  thus.  Nor  were  these  pro- 
ceedings exceptional.  King  George  III., 
while  insane,  is  said  to  have  been  knocked 
"  as  flat  as  a  flounder  "  by  the  scientific 
(8) 


fist-treatment  of  an  attendant.  A  stern 
attitude,  curses,  chains,  and  floggings  were 
in  fact  considered  by  the  medical  science 
of  the  day  as  appropriate  and  necessary 
treatment ;  and  the  superintendents  of  the 
time  seem  to  have  gone  frantic  in  method- 
ical and  ingenious  barbarity,  skilfully 
planned  to  terrify  and  prostrate  the  pa- 
tient. In  fact,  mankind  seemed  to  have 
considered  the  insane  as  scarcely  human 
beings. 

In  1 792  Pinel  had  attained  an  eminence 
in  his  profession  which  led  to  his  recogni- 
tion as  the  only  man  in  France  capable  of 
reforming  the  management  of  the  Paris 
hospitals.  He  was  appointed  by  the  Com- 
mune to  take  charge  of  the  Hospice  de 
Bicetre,  an  immense  civic  institution,  con- 
taining, among  other  inmates,  some  two 
hundred  insane  men,  of  whom  fifty-three 
(9) 


were  kept  in  chains.  He  applied  for  leave 
to  remove  the  fetters.  An  official  accom- 
panied him  on  a  visit  of  inspection.  "  Woe 
to  thee  if  thou  hidest  the  enemies  of  the 
people  among  the  lunatics  !  "  was  the  grim 
warning,  with  a  suggestion  of  the  guillo- 
tine. The  official  made  his  visit,  but  soon 
tired  of  the  monotonous  sights  and  sounds 
of  confusion  and  terror.  "  Look  here, 
citizen,"  said  he  to  Pinel,  "art  thou  mad 
thyself,  that  thou  wilt  unchain  such 
animals  ?  "  "  Citizen,"  was  the  lofty 
reply,  "  I  am  convinced  that  these  lunatics 
are  so  unmanageable  only  because  they 
are  robbed  of  air  and  liberty ;  and  I  dare 
to  hope  much  from  the  opposite  means  of 
treatment."  "  Well,  do  as  pleases  thee. 
I  give  them  into  thy  hand ;  but  I  fear  thou 
wilt  be  the  victim  of  thy  presumption." 
Pinel  began  his  work  the  same  day.  In 
less  than  a  week  these  fifty-three  furious 

(  io) 


and  ungovernable  men,  some  of  whom  had 
worn  chains  from  ten  to  thirty  years,  had 
been  unfettered.  Contrary  to  expectation, 
no  violence  occurred :  the  men  received 
their  liberty  quietly,  and  a  new  spirit  of 
order  appeared. 

The  scene  illustrated  in  the  accompany- 
ing picture  belongs  to  his  experiences  in 
the  Salpetriere,  the  women's  establishment, 
about  two  years  later.  The  same  abuses 
and  atrocities  prevailed  there  as  at  the 
Bicetre,  and  the  same  opposition  had  to  be 
overcome;  but  the  results  were  equally 
satisfactory. 

Pinel's  reformatory  measures  did  not 
stop  here,  but  extended  to  a  renovation  of 
the  whole  system,  abolishing  dungeons,  im- 
proving the  light  and  air  and  diet,  provid- 
ing special  nurses,  and  building  workshops 
(») 


for  the  patients'  employment.  He  antici- 
pated in  essence  the  whole  of  modern  re- 
form, up  to  the  time  when  Conolly  gave  a 
logical  completion  to  his  idea  by  insisting 
on  the  removal  of  all  bodily  restraint. 

Pinel  was  not  a  product  of  the  French 
Revolution.  He  shrank  from  the  horrors 
which  were  perpetrated  about  him.  In 
unchaining  his  patients,  he  took  his  life  in 
his  hands,  surrounded  as  he  was  by  the 
fierce  jealousy  of  the  factions  which  were 
trying  Louis  XVI.  for  his  life,  and  which 
wrought  the  deeds  of  the  First  Terror. 
His  was  not  the  courage  of  a  revolutionary 
statesman.  It  was  the  courage  of  the 
tender  and  merciful  soul,  the  man  of  relig- 
ion, the  good  son,  the  student  philosopher, 
the  lover  of  the  wretched.  It  was  the 
courage  of  the  man  of  sympathetic  insight 
who  dares  to  trust  to  his  insight  in  oppo- 

(    12   ) 


sition  to  almost  universal  public  and  pro- 
fessional belief.  In  paying  a  tribute  of 
gratitude  to  such  a  man,  we  render  a  trib- 
ute to  the  divine  possibilities  in  human 
nature. 


(13) 


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DATE  BORROWED 

DATE  DUE 

DATE  BORROWED 

DATE  DUE 

R507.P65 
Lincoln 
"nilippe  ?inel 


L63 
11903 


on  pi^Al°Jvyh^h  ~ru 


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Us 


t£\ 


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